What’s Up With Drake And Nicki Minaj? He Addresses Why They Weren’t Speaking

Everything about Drake is different now. One listen to his third solo LP, Nothing was the Same, reveals that his flow is different, his confidence is different and even his relationship with labelmate Nicki Minaj is different.

He admitted on “Tuscan Leather” that he’s “Not even talkin’ to Nicki, communication is breakin’/ I dropped the ball on some personal sh–, I need to embrace it.” So when MTV News caught up with the Toronto MC, we asked for the story behind the silence.

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“That line in ‘Tuscan Leather’ isn’t exactly where I am in my life right now but like a year ago…eight months, seven months ago, it was how I felt,” Drake told MTV News about the friendship’s rough patch. “I’d done something wrong and I wasn’t speaking to her.”

Not surprisingly, YMCMB fans were thrown for a loop when rumors began to swirl earlier this year about a rift between the group’s two flagship artists. The gossip had gained so much steam, in fact, that the “Your Love” MC was asked about it when she visited Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex back in July.

“Drake’s so talented,” she said. “Sometimes, we’ve seen this. Sometimes when you’re really intelligent and you’re really talented, you also think a lot. Sometimes your mind is racing with thoughts. It is what it is. People go through their own motions and you’ve gotta respect it and keep it moving. We all love the team. We all love Wayne. That’s what’s gonna always hold us together. Drake is my baby because that’s how it was when we came in. So whenever I think of him, ‘That’s my baby.’

“Whatever is going on now, obviously we’re all very busy and you know, sh– happens,” she added. “It gets a little hard to have a real connection when people are on different sides of the world, working on different things. You just never know who people got in their ear or what they’re feeling or maybe they felt wronged in some way. I don’t know. I just know that Drake is my baby and Wayne is my everything.”

Drizzy wouldn’t elaborate on why he and Nicki weren’t speaking around the time he began recording the follow-up to 2011’s critically acclaimed Take Care, but whatever the reason, it bothered him enough that he felt he needed to get it off his chest on the bombastic opening track, “I’m honest. I make mistakes. I’d be the second to admit it/Think that’s why I need her in my life, to check me when I’m trippin’.”

And if Nicki did have to “check” the OVO’s head owl about his worst behavior, he’s keeping that close to the vest. But now, thankfully, the two are back on speaking terms and working through the hard times.

“I think the dialogue actually between us was already opened up,” Drake said. “I had already solved that issue. I wrote that a while ago and I kinda felt guilty changing it. It was a sentiment that I had when I started this album and felt like that’s how it should be. The album should start one place and end in another.”

Although Drake contends that he’s patched things up with Nicki, the dynamic lyrical duo aren’t like “peas and carrots” again just yet. He doesn’t know how she feels about his decision to keep the controversial line in the song in spite of their reconciliation.

“I haven’t talked to her since it’s been out,” he admitted. “I’m not sure. I haven’t spoke to her.”